Not Quite a 3rd Part 2

 What the hell is this part two business? Dont read my blog eh? HERE'S PART 1!
Mega Ran & Doctor Awkward @ the DNA lounge!
 My Two days of Awkward continued from Sunday into Monday.
I rolled up to The City and strolled up to DNA and made it up the steps with a few minutes to spare.
Dr. Awkward kicked it off with great aplomb and style.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I can continue to write about certain artists performances when all I can say is "great, awesome, WHOO!" about their sets.
AND Int80 IS NOW A BAY AREA HOMIE AND HELPED PERFORM "KUNG FU"

 DURING AWKWARD'S SET!!!!!!!
After that I found my date for the evening, a good friend of mine, Mac. I tasked her to pick targets and I would be her wingman for the eve. Apparently she wasn't too taken with my first choice for her, probably for the best.
While A_Rival rocked it I began my Merch-table networking/schmoozing/fanboying. And Urizen also went crazy! Very metal.
I snagged a copy of Black Materia because I didn't realize the day before that the Album "Black Materia" had a white cover, oops. It's cool, Random signed it for me!

Black Materia: Signed by Random, in a super cool DVD case

I then scoped the tour poster and had to have that happen, Random then tasked me with with collecting signatures of every performer present. I did not succeed but I did get a few.

NES in The West Tour 2013: signed by Radnom, Dr. Awkward, Dj DN3, & Special guest Int80

But I also had a bit of clever the day before in thinking, "oh man, I really like getting shirts and CD's signed but they sort of hard to show off and be like 'look at this cool thing with cool things on it!' and then have then get destroyed/washed repeatedly . . ." But then I was like . . "ooh, maybe I should have them sign MY NES! - - - No, that's dumb, it's hard to carry it around, if you drop it, hard to show people as they'd have to be in it's presence . .  I KNOW! I have extra copies of old NES game, I can fit it into a large pocket and even if I drop it or whatever, it has less mass and wont break into a million heavy peices! BRILLAINT!"

Harmless NES cartridge?

NO! Nerdcore Signature Transportation device!

I have some serious stalking to do now, I need ALL THE NAMES emblazoned onto this one Cartridge!
I then wanted to straight up donate to Dr. Awkward because sometimes music appears online and I want to honestly buy it but am broke at the time. So seeing these guys live is my opportunity to be like, "I have monies today, take them so I can not feel guilty 'choosing to pay 0.00 dollars' on Bandcamp when I really want to give you 15 and get a full CD in a jewel case, ya heard?"
And Doc Awk, humble as always was like, "nah man, take some merch for your cash!" So I snagged a mixtape sampler, which I gave to my sister (she LOVES MC Frontalot's "Start Over" yeah, that's right, my sister likes Nerdcore deep cuts, I'm so Indy) and a shirt THAT ISNT EVEN AVAILABLE ONLINE! See?

Zombie Shredder!

And then, as Bit Brigade started their AWESOMENESS I got a call that said I should head home, which turned out a good thing as 101 was shrunk down to ONE LANE! I don't give a fuck that it was 11pm on a Monday night it's 101 AND IT WAS ONE LANE!?!?!? Oh yeah, I didn't get any of the sigs from Urizen because they were post performance and I like to give performers some time to breathe and come down before I start bombarding them with fanboyness.
But Otherwise, the show was a blast and I can't wait to see any of these guys again on-stage or off as Nerds be Nerds and we should all hang out sometime.
P.S. I'm not gonna say anything is official or even "in the works" or anything, I'm just gonna say the words . .  which sound fun and may not mean anything at all . . .
Doctor Awkward at Fanime
I'm just gonna leave that there and TRUST me, I will let you know if any combination of the above comes to any sort of fruition.
Thanks again for reading H47ites!
And here's some vid from their show in so cal before the weekend I saw them...

Not Quite a 3rd Part 1

TWO NIGHTS OF AWKWARD! Also, master lyrical educator Mega Ran!
Day one was in my favorite metropolitan areas SAN JOSE!, next to one of my favorite centers of learning, SJSU.
This concert was a bit unique from the typical venues that "small bands" perform in as this was at ROCKAGE SJ an awesome video game and Indie music fest that goes the entire weekend (ferreals gonna attend the next one). This year it was held at the San Jose Woman's Club, an awesome 20s-30s style building tucked up past SJSU.
I had it all planned out, I even made a facebook event (for any of you who know me personally you know how much I LOATHE Facebook, so, big deal) and I was gonna roll down there and be boss cause, ya know, home turf, PARTY! Little did I realize in my ignorance of cultural diversity, it was also Chinese New Year and everyone else had plans. But WHATEVA, I slow rolled around the place a couple times blasting Zealous1 looking for parking but decided to park in one of my favorite parking garages and strolled over to the event. "First 50 at the door receive free Wii Guitar!" I was among those first 50, B-day present for my Sister! (I no have Wii, she do).
I thought I'd be there a little early so I could see Doctor Awkward and then watch MegaRan's set. APPARENTLY Mega Ran went up first and was the followed up by Doc. I think it had something to do with the fact Ran had to get to the Grammys. So I got to see Random's set first and then watched a very intimate set by Awk. Would you like to watch it!?
HERE!!!! is the Twitch.tv feed of it plus the other acts that played that day and some interviews, all kinds of fun. check it!
After Awk's Set I camped the merch table for some quality time to chat. So many questions and of course, as soon as you get there, you forget them all.
It's cool, talked with DJ DN3, a pro producer and all around cool cat, while grabbing some swag, but the main event of this trip was the LIMITED EDITION 1 OF 15(13) special box set of Doctor Awkwards Discography!
I have friends who are terribly averse to unboxing videos so here are unboxing PICTURES! Check it out.

Wii guitar (& Taylor Swift face plate), Dr. Awkward Discography AND White Materia

White Materia is several remixes/mash ups of Black Materia as well as other FFVII music

Like mainstream beats but cant stand the lyrics? SOLVED! ty DJ Nerd 42!

Diggin the Tron inspired W/Deathly Hallows front cover!

Title Spine! (yes, its a VHS box. I'm excited)

It IS a VHS with cryptic messages!

 

Sweet, a little light cycle in a custom gutted VHS shell, ha!

Its a USB light cycle. METAL!

IT GLOWS BLUE JUST LIKE MY SPECIAL EDITION SCII TAG! WHHOO!!!

But H47!? How was the show?
I'll tell you. Fun! I'll be honest, it had a "wierd" vibe as it was like RIGHT after lunch ("morning" for most nerds. amirite!?) and there weren't a lot of people at the event yet as it was earlier in the day BUT, consummate professionals all, Random & Doctor Awkward gave a full 100% for the hardy few of us who came out to see them specifically.
I'm glad to pass the few bucks I could to Random, DJ DN3, & Doc Awk to show my appreciation for coming out to my home town and hope they come back again as I hear tell SJ has a thriving indie scene that welcomes all sorts of acts.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2! . . . .

3rd 4 t3h NRRD: Aug. '12

Dual Core
A Nerdcore staple and consistently producing & performing act since as far back as '07, these guys have serious roots into the joke "I'm from the Internet."

Int80, the raptastic half of Dual Core

Though dominantly only "evidence" of Int80 can be found as he is the one who rocks the mic, the duo's music is proof of Nerdcore's legitimacy as a musical genre, whatever the hell that means, or if any of us really cared.
Their sounds are clean, with tantalizing samples and compelling baselines. I love all of beats on the tracks I have ever heard from them. The sound is polished & finished, and that makes a huge impact when I listen to an artist.

The ever elusive c64, the beats half of the group.

The lyrics, the flow, the content, also fantastic. Everything from their debut content about fps' and webcomics, to some of their heavier tracks about the grind of life in tech, or corporate at large, with fantastic collabs with a slew of other Nerdcore players.


Overall, a very solid sound, group and discography, and should be a firm cornerstone of any Nerdcore collection.

Filler . . .

 . . . I hardly knew her! *zing*
Yeah, so. I keep telling you guys how busy I am, and I still am, so, sorry the Blog suffers, but until it starts making me money (hint, hint, hit the "donate button over there on the right and throw me some doll-hairs!) I have to go to work, and look for more work so I can afford a car so I can go to work some more, you know, "responsible" things. pht.
Enough Complaining though, i wanted to let you know why there STIULL hasn't been a 3rd 4 t3h Nrrd this month. It's because I have not had a single day this month so far where I had more than 6 hours to myself. No, it does not take that long total for me to write a 4rd for t3h nrrd post, but it does take that much time to do my normal morning catching up on feeds, feeding myself, doing theatre catchup stuff (because as a Fight DIrector I actually have things to do after rehearsals that involve yelling at actors, politely asking other designers to please stop screwing with my choreography by changing their designs, and making sure my weapons . . . exist, and then are not slightly defective (anticipated), configured in ways I hadn't anticipated, and dangerous.
Crap, there I go complaining again. Anyway, yeah, to flesh out a proper review can take minimum of 2 hours, and has taken me up to 8 when I didn't have an artist to start with.

But! Worry not, to compensate for the "blah blah blah" noise and the gripeing, I hereby supply you with a "cool things" dump, as per "Joesky's Law"


Fun. especially the "bang! bang! BANGBANGBANG B A N G !" and only just on the edge of too much.

The Six SuperVillains of Nerd Culture
I am friends with 4 out of the six, and find it . . . interesting they chose a female as "The Imposter." and Although I would readily agree that the majority of "Imposters" are female (I believe due to the readily social nature of a lot of the Nerd Net-culture), I know a lot of Lady Nerds who might take offense to it being a female there, or perhaps I post that "the Imposter" & "The Bro" are simply the same Villain, just gender personified, which, we see a lot in super heroes/villains.


I really like it. The first time I could recall seeing this particular art style was in The AniMatrix and I really enjoy it. I also like the Asian flavor to the characters, except maybe Bane, perhaps they do more with him.


AAAnnnddd, I can't get this fucking song out of my head and neither can you. And I hate to admit it, I really enjoy it.

Stick with me H47ites. I should have full fledged posts as soon as I have a car. So wish me an expedient purchase. Later!

THREE YEARS!

Wow, thats like, the Styrifoam Anniversary isn't it? or is that the 3rd month?
Yes! I know the 3rd is the actual date but, damn if I wasnt busy from Fanime, and now my show, and of course work as we hired one new guy and still only have 3 halves of 3 other employees, so hopefully we will hire one more to balance it out.

ANYWAY. In the vein of our regular Anniversayr Posts, I will LINK TO OLD POSTS!!!!

This is me holding a functional Odachi. No big deal.

As well as to hopefully get some of my more recent readers acquainted with the kind of frippery I post up here. Let's dive right in, shall we!

Finding A Path Through Three and a Half!
A short breakdown of my initial forays into Pathfinder as oppsed to 3.5. It still holds true and am running two short campaigns, both using Pathfinder system as the two games I normally play in are on hiatus for a month or two and THOSE TWO ARE ALSO PATHFINDER!
Bonus Link! BLACK BOX REVIEW!

3rd 4 Teh NRRD: April '10
MC Hawking. an old guard Nerdcore playa that will always be Rollin! For Extra Credit Check These Other Doc's! I still hope and dream that one day The hot Doc Hawk will drop some Science on us again.

Remember Memeorables!
Silent! & Sultry AND Silly!

AND A Couple Reviews on media, like
Cartoons! and Books! And Cartoons (for those who can't scroll down two posts!)

And a video . . . . To round out our usual theme. (Made me think of my buddy Knapplesauce, who IS my IRL Guile. Love ya Bro!*)

3rd 4 t3h NRRD: June '12

Should Oceania ever rise to power, these guys will be among the many to be put to death, as they are unashamedly . . .
Thoughtcriminals

JOKE!

Like some previous Bosses, this crew is a buy one get more free setup as a several bright lights keep this group aflame! They have been a fixture on the scene for some time now and continue to produce fantastic content.

Either individually,
as founder Mikal kHill has a smooth steady pace with occasional super speed realms vocally that compells the listener to concentrate and really hear what's being said, this provides an excellent contrast and compliment to fairly consistent partner Sulfur.
This cat provides a snarl, a dark, bouncy and poignant emphasis with rhythm that pulls you in with visceral intent.
Combine this with masterful mixing and pro-level beats. The only reason to NOT listen to them would be lyrical content.

All about those roots, son! Know your references!

And that would be silly as they cover a wide swath of topics form the fantastically nerdy to the painfully real, as well as throwing down collab. after collab. to keep the sound itself fresh.
They have often worked with Tribe One, Romero Shaw, Shane Hall & Adam Warrock, just to name a few. 
If that last one seems familiar in context, well you would be right as there was an EPIC BROWNCOATS MIXTAPE born of that union.
And this particular focus is timely in that apparently some of the last touches on the Slyhtherin Mixtape are being finished.

Recording final mixes for Slytherin Mixtape. So boring. Saying hooks 28+ times for one song.
— Euge (Adam WarRock) (@eugewarrock) June 6, 2012

I can't wait to snag that! Bang it while reppin' that Hogwarts crest!

3rd 4 T3h NRRD: May '12

Tribe One

Also, Tribe One Won, Dirty South Swamp Thing, Devil Rhymeosaur & Ol' Dirty Batroc. And I'm sure other awesome pseudonyms as well.

It's a shirt. I really want one. As much as I loathe those "pop-eye as a playa" or "pink panther as a pimp" Tees, this one is fresh, yo!

This particular artist was once part of a group called Remnant and has since guested on many Nerdcore tracks across the verse, some might be very familiar, and has laid down a couple albums, you can scope them NYAH. 
He has also toured with MC Chris & Adam Warrock for a stint on the Race Wars Tour.

I really hope this dude keeps producing and performing as I like his semi-spoken word style and his clean delivery. The beats he employs are usually solid with what I would call roots in more old school hip-hop but many that are unquestionably nerdy.

"That's right, I'm a grown ass man about to go out in public in a Spiderman Shirt" - a quote from his Facebook

He seems to be very in touch with the southern scene with a know-how and passion. There is a lot of heart in his music, and I like how clean that is. I like me some gimmicky/silly/obscene punchlines as much as the next angry nerd, but there's truth in his music that is refreshing and there needs to be more of it in the world in general.

3rd 4 t3h NRRD: April '12

If Nerdcore ever makes it into "mainstream," as in, gets national radio play, I believe artists like Richie Branson will be the ones to break the barrier.

Get yo Game Chain! Srsly, go get one

(Yes, I know Branson himself has gotten airtime in his home state, as well as well known nerdy rapper MC Lars gets some play time in the Cali bay area on Live 105, but I know I never heard a Branson track in my neck of the woods, and I doubt The Boss Fights ever SUDDENLY bumped "Hot Topic is not Punk Rock" because it came on 91X)

This dude is a pro in every sense of the word. Serious DIY. Not only is he a head of a production company that has connected to major record labels, he has performed every job involved in producing music. Just look at his bio, dude's diverse.
This might be yet another review on an artist who does not self identify as NerdCore but definitively has Nerdy Hip Hop but until the artist says "no, I'm not Nerdcore and don't call me that" which some have done, I think they might be okay with that.
Back to the music, please enjoy this delicious track inspired by a VERY popular franchise . . .

As one should expect from someone who has done so much in the last few years, his sound is clean, upbeat, and steady. I understand everything being spit, can bob my head to the beat, recognize the samples he's acquired from properties I'm familiar with and they meld well into the total composition. If the dude doesn't exactly rep Nerdcore then he's def a big ol' geek, just check his site.
I am starting to find that when a really good artist comes into my music library, the less I have to say about him, the more I just enjoy them. This is definitely the case here. Go snag his tunes, pay for them if you can, keep the music and the artists alive, and so you can see what kind of cross over he does, here is something a little more "normal"

3rd 4 t3h NRRD: March '12

I know, I know, late, but worth the wait. This month, while everyone is at SXSW living the dream only rivaled by PAX's & Nerdapalooza, I give you, DALE CHASE!

I like to think he's thinking "I wonder if Mandalorean gals wear the same things Scot's wear under their kilts. Yeah."

A fixture on the Nerdcore scene for a number of years now, many collabs with almost every other artist, he is a smooth operator. His voice is even, calm, always in tune and his cadence melds with his beats. A consummate Geek among geeks, it would seem he keeps himself lyrically sharp as well as up to date through his random Tech Week Remixes. The couple I watched were interesting, worth giving a listen.

Mr. Chase is a Scrub, and in a good way, that link takes you too a couple of his albums. I have long ago devoured them and incorporated them into the hard drive I have dedicated to nerdy music. (No thats perhaps not that impressive anymore, but still, I needed space for mah games!) And fret not, unlike some of the artists I've done in the past, he seems to be consistently active around the webs/world.

As mentioned above, he's active, peep some pics of his exploits HERE and I hope he makes it onto the next Nerdcore Now Album . . . if another one comes out. Well, either way, I look forward to more music form this sleek geek. I would admit, it would be worth . . . the Chase . . . .    YYYYEYEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!

3rd 4 T3h NRRD: Feb. '12

This month brings us a blast from the past, a progenitor, an original geeksta, fully loaded, deep and encoded; MC PLUS+ 

A cat with serious smarts, this rhythm droppin' doctorate is known for being one of the artists on Rhyme Torrents 1 as well as his "beef" with another CS(comp. Sci.) artist, Monzy. For more details on his exact area of study you can check WIKI or get some more music centric info ON HIS SITE. Have some toons, won't you?


The rivalry between MC Plus+ and Monzy resolved itself at CES where they came together to rap a duet and make amends.

As one might imagine, it seems his academics were a little a more of a focus then his music but rumor has it there are some lost recording sessions, perhaps one day his comp. quips and mother-board metaphors will return to nerdy music. Unfortunately it seems most of the tracks on his site are broekn, but they're are still plenty up on youtube & Some Other places as well.
And for another treat, here's a live performance, skip to 1:20 if you want to get straight to the tunes.